1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an auxiliary shaft having a ball-shaped end releasably mounted in a two-part sleeve, for hand tools. This invention is particularly directed to such adjustable auxiliary shaft assemblies cooperating with hand tools having normally a single shaft such as shovels, rakes, scrapers, snow plows, forks snow pushers, squeegees and other hand tools for lifting, picking-up, transporting, pulling and pushing a variety of materials including but not limited to snow, sand, dirt, leaves, powders, earth, vegetables.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a plethora of references describing handle accessories for work tools, such as:
U.S. Pat. No. 933,647 dated Sep. 7, 1909 as invented by Hunt, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 842,912 dated Feb. 5, 1907 as invented by Rundell, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,151,012 dated Aug. 24, 1915 as invented by Herringstad, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,430,802 dated Dec. 11, 1947 as invented by Catlin, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,728 dated Sep. 27, 1977 as invented by Davidson, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,266 dated Dec. 5, 1978 as invented by Vaslas, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,582 dated May 22, 1979 as invented by Reisner, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,324 dated Apr. 29, 1980 as invented by Helton, PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,541 dated Jul. 31, 1990 as invented by Waldschmidt, PA1 U.K. Patent 568,515 dated Apr. 9, 1945 as invented by Baugh, PA1 U.K. Patent Application 2 156 641 dated Sep. 20, 1984 as invented by Cook, PA1 Austrian Patent 165574 dated Mar. 25, 1950 as invented by Exenberger, PA1 Japanese Patent 61-146927 dated Jul. 4, 1986 as invented by Irisawa, PA1 German Patent 410274 dated Mar. 4, 1925 as invented by Bucker, and PA1 French Patent 948,860 dated Aug. 12, 1949 as invented by Dobrigkeit. PA1 an auxiliary shaft, and a two-part sleeve, PA1 said auxiliary shaft having one end and another end, PA1 said one end of said auxiliary shaft being ball-shaped, PA1 said ball-shaped end having a diameter, PA1 said sleeve having a top, a bottom and a symmetrical axis running from said top to said bottom, PA1 and said sleeve being cut in half along said symmetrical axis to define the two parts of said two-part sleeve, PA1 an inner hemi-housing parallel to said symmetrical axis of said sleeve, and running from said top to said bottom of said sleeve, for tight fitting of half the cross-section of a portion of a hand-tool shaft, PA1 and near said top away from said inner hemi-housing for said hand-tool shaft, PA1 an inner hemi-housing for receiving half of said ball-shaped end of said auxiliary shaft and said inner hemi-housing having an opening at said top, said opening being smaller than the diameter of said ball-shaped end of said auxiliary shaft, PA1 and said two parts of said sleeve being releasably fastened together with bolt means positioned away from said opening at said top of said housing for said ball-shaped end, PA1 said two parts of said sleeve, when assembled, thus defining: PA1 an auxiliary shaft, and a two-part sleeve, PA1 said auxiliary shaft having one end and another end, PA1 said one end of said auxiliary shaft being ball-shaped, PA1 said ball-shaped end having a diameter, PA1 said sleeve having a top, a bottom and a symmetrical axis running from said top to said bottom, PA1 and said sleeve being cut in half along said symmetrical axis to define the two parts of said two-part sleeve, PA1 each part of said two-part sleeve, defining an inner hemi-cylindrical housing parallel to said symmetrical axis of said sleeve, and running from said top to said bottom of said sleeve for tight fitting half the cross-section of a portion of a hand-tool shaft, PA1 and near said top away from said inner hemi-cylindrical housing, and stopping short of said top, PA1 an inner hemi-spherical housing for receiving half of said ball-shaped end, said hemi-spherical housing being also short of a hemi-spherical segment at said top, PA1 and said two parts of said sleeve being releasably fastened together with bolt means positioned away from said opening at said top resulting from said hemi-spherical segments in said hemi-spherical housing, PA1 said two parts of said sleeve, when assembled, defining:
These, however, have a handle which is pivotally mounted about a pivot or fixed or fastened.
The prior art offers no solution to prevent back injuries and hernias to a manipulator handling an overload. The prior art is silent regarding a simple two-part sleeve releasably holding an auxiliary shaft, for easily coupling to hand tools having a conventional single shaft such as shovels, rakes and the like, whereby under an overload the auxiliary shaft is released in order to prevent body injuries.